First: Game is Good.

Second: QoL changes.

We have Easy and Hard options.

Normal is called Dragon Quest, bog standard, zero modifiers

Easy is called Dracky Quest (like the monster). Party HP will never drop below 1, so there's no fear of party wipe, making it a guarantee you'll reach the end

Hard is called Draconian Quest, all monsters get buffer, and exp/coin rates take a hit on top of that

You have a minimap in the top right corner, and can call upon a area map/world map with the tap of a button

the maps have indicators for doorways, wells, shops, and if you opt in for it, story markers

from the map, you can press a different button to jump to the zoom menu.

zoom is now free to cast, can be used indoors, and can bring you to places that aren't cities or towns.

All world map locations are marked with their old sprite equivalent from the older versions

they will not appear on the map until you enter them

new to the game are Secret Spots. You can't zoom to them, and they only have one screen to their location, but they typically have goodies of some sort hidden inside.

These are very much one-and-dones. Grab what's worth grabbing and never return.

also new to the overworld are Shiny Spots. in-lore explained as abandoned belongings, they're little bundles of loot you can just walk up to and grab.

you'll typically get maybe two or three different types of items in varying quantities. In early game you can reliably equip your team off this stuff alone, but the shops and dungeon treasures will start to outstrip it eventually

on that note, equipment

there's a whole bunch of new weapons in the game, likely to make the other classes more viable

everyone can equip a weapon, a shield, a helmet, armor, and two accessories

Accessories are abundant, and a lot of the new ones do one of three things

dampen incoming elemental damage
increase failure rates of status effects
change your personality

Personality, as in the original, affects your stat growths, but was largely obtuse and hard to grock without irl spreadsheets

in the game, there is a section of the tool-tips dedicated to exactly what stat growths personalities will affect.

Books still exist if you would rather not lock up an accessory slot over your growths, but the accessories do offer stat boosts alongside the change, so nothing's stopping you from holding on until a level up is about to happen

next, classes

with the inclusion of monster wrangler and the have-to-work-for-it Sage, we're now up to 9 non-hero classes

All of the classes now learn things as they level up. If your a Mage/Priest/Sage, you learn more spells, as is tradition. This all functions as you expect it to

If you're one of the Six Physical Classes, you'll be learning abilities. Their names might imply otherwise, but they aren't locked to any particular weapon in combat, and can be used even when under a Fizzle effect

for the most part, abilities are tied to your leveling, and you'll gain them at the appropriate points. Monster Wrangler is a bit of an exception, though

While it does have some skills gained from leveling up, it also gains skill when you meet hallmarks in finding friendly monsters

this is yet another new system to the game, and part of a monster arena minigame you can play in certain cities

find monsters in the zones to add them to your retinue. monsters don't gain experience in the arena. Instead, you have to find the same species of monster to give them a boost through the power of friendship

the monsters themselves can be found anywhere, but they'll typically only come out at certain times of the day (Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night).

A lot of the time, these monsters are easily spooked, so the method of approaching them will need to change...

or you can have a monster wrangler in your party and just walk up to them, which is much easier

yeah, they included a whole subsystem where the monster might need you to use an item like musk or the Thief's Padfoot ability to get close to them, but they also gave the new class a passive ability that sidesteps all of that

so if you want to engage with the monster arena, and finding the monsters in general, keep a wrangler in your party.

(as an aside, the wrangler has an ability that acts as a radar, telling you if you're near a zone with a friendly in it, if the friendly is around, or if you need to come back at a different time to find it. Keep them on hand)

Class changes are as it was before, boosted stats, carryover of all learned abilities and spells from the previous class.

Gadabout now has a number of abilities it can learn, so if you're thinking of going for a sage, maybe consider going the roundabout route of Gadabout first, rather than burning a scroll over it

they change the name to alltrades abbey and i know it was done for consistency but goddamnit none of that location looks like a christian abbey they should have kept the name Dharma like in the original all the other towns have their names and

Third: We no longer have Treasures and Trapdoors

Fourth: Story!

If you played the GBC version, you'll know it came with a lovely little opening montage of Daddy Ortega on his journey

we don't get that here

instead we get flashbacks and stories from npcs interspersed through the game much more organically that tell us the tale of Ortega, learning about him at the same time as his child

a very good choice

some of the cutscenes are voiced, and while you can give your party voices, those are all battle shouts and skill names

and as a final thing that I had forgotten from the second section: the Recall spell line no longer exists

instead you have a dedicated button that lets you remember up to 30 interactions that you have.

Which you then review from the dedicated Recall section of the menu

alright, that's it, thank you for coming to my lecture